Thief of the Ancients

by Mike Wild

  “Yes, but –”

  “Then it’s settled,” Kali looked at the ground. “Get yourself ready, there isn’t much time.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Slowhand protested. “There isn’t much time for what? How exactly are we going to abandon ship, Hooper?”

  “Once, whenna our sheep was swept into the sky by the Great Gusts of Groom,” Dolorosa interjected, “Aldrededor and I escape using the sheep’s flag anda feathers from its mascot. We called itta the parrot-chute!”

  “You have to be kidding, right?” Slowhand sighed. “Well, unfortunately, we’re all out of parrots, too.”

  “You havva the better idea, preety boy?”

  “Pretty boy?”

  “Yessa, preety boy!”

  “Hey!”

  “I have the better idea,” Kali interrupted. “We use the Roaring.”

  “The Roaring?”

  Kali nodded, picturing the giant, coolwater geyser that erupted north of Miramas and Gargas, the strange wall of water she had seen at sea having given her the idea. No one really knew what the source of the Roaring was, though some said it was an outlet for water surging underground from the other side of the World’s Ridge Mountains. What she did know was that it thundered into the air for an hour each day at about this time, and the phenomenon was right in their flightpath. What was more, when the geyser crashed back to ground, its overflow became the Rainbow River which, flowing south-easterly, eventually fed Badlands Brook near which sat the Flagons. If Slowhand and the others gave themselves to the geyser and the current of the river they should not only be home in no time but – assuming they stayed in the moving water – relatively safe from any k’nid infestation between here and their destination.

  “Let me get this straight,” Slowhand said. “You want us to jump into the Roaring?”

  “Only if it’s spouting.”

  “What ees the matter, preety boy – afraid of a leetle water?” Dolorosa taunted. She joined Aldrededor at the ship’s rails, her husband having already detached himself from the controls, trusting Kali implicitly.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Slowhand said to Kali. “I’m staying with you.”

  “Slowhand, you can’t. One person on board, this ship gets where I need it to go. Two, it crashes and burns.”

  “Then you jump, too!” the archer retorted. And then, more softly: “Dammit, Hooper, I’ve already lost one person I love today.”

  Kali stared at him, momentarily speechless. The fact was, she didn’t exactly relish what she planned to do as it was as potentially dangerous as Slowhand feared, but if her plan was to work she had to stay with the ship. “There’s no choice.”

  “What are you going to do, Hooper, hit me again? Well, try it. You just try –”

  Kali’s fist landed hard. The archer staggered back and then collapsed to the deck.

  Kali took a deep breath, then leaned over the rail and looked down and ahead. The Roaring was already looming, spray from it spattering her face.

  “Time to go.”

  Both Aldrededor and Dolorosa climbed onto the rail, ready to jump, the latter hesitating slightly.

  “Bossa lady? Arra you sure you know whatta you are doing?”

  Kali smiled. “I thought I told you, I make this up as I go along.” She looked at the prone archer. “Look after him, okay?”

  “Pretty boy, he willa notta be pleased.”

  “I hope you survive to find out, Kali Hooper,” Aldrededor said.

  “Both of you,” Kali said, “thank you. For everything.”

  The ex-pirates nodded, he with a twirl of his moustache and a twinkle of his eye, she with a smile that cracked parts of her face Kali hadn’t ever seen move. And then the two of them waited until the wide geyser was beneath them and leapt.

  Kali watched the two Sarcreans plunge into the seething plateau and then quickly heaved Slowhand’s unconscious form onto the rail. The archer was groaning, beginning to stir, when she grabbed his legs and tipped him forward. Slowhand’s semiconscious form tumbled from the ship, his clothes snagging awkwardly on some protrusion from the hull and, before Kali’s disbelieving eyes, they were ripped from him, leaving him completely naked, bar his bow and quiver, to fall after the pirates.

  Pits of bloody Kerberos! Just how in the hells did he do it?

  Shaking her head, Kali moved to the rear of the deck and watched as Aldrededor and Dolorosa caught the spluttering archer, and then the three of them began to recede from her view as the giant geyser reached its zenith and began to drop from whence it had come.

  Kali moved to the bow of the ship and stared down to study the landscape as it continued to roll beneath her. The ship was following the course of the Rainbow River. There was the Rainbow Delta and one of its various offshoots, Badlands Brook, there Ponderfoot’s Copse, there Bottomless Pit, and there – suddenly – the Flagons itself. The sight of home – surrounded, though thankfully still untouched, by the k’nid – tugged at her, and the desire to be down there, downing her eighth glass of thwack was almost so overwhelming that she was tempted, for a second, to leap overboard herself. The desire became all the more tempting when unexpectedly – no doubt drawn by the sound of the ship, the kind of off key sound that only he would recognise – Merrit Moon emerged from the doors of the tavern and stared upwards. It was odd but Kali had become somehow so used to the concept of the Kerberos ship over these last hours that she had forgotten how staggering it might be to another’s eyes. She watched the old man’s face gurn through a number of indefinable expressions before he mouthed the words: “My gods.”

  He actually did stagger back when she waved to him from the deck, and for a moment she thought he might spontaneously turn into Thrutt.

  Interested in Old Race artefacts, old man? Well, I got you a doozy.

  She wished she could explain what was happening, have the reassuring presence of the old man with her somehow, but that task would have to be left to Aldrededor, Dolorosa and Slowhand.

  The ship moved on and, after a while, Kali wondered whether she were close enough yet to put the next stage of her plan into action, studying the ground once more to sight landmarks to indicate her proximity to Andon. The effective range at which her plan might work was a complete unknown, however, and she would really lose nothing by trying to instigate it now. Decided, she steadied herself on the bow of the ship and focused all her mental energy and concentration into the formation of a single word. A name.

  Sonpear.

  It was a gamble, of course – a gamble that the telepathic link that the League sorcerer had established with her while she was in Domdruggle’s Expanse remained effective.

  Sonpear, she attempted again, trying to amplify her thoughts. Can you hear me?

  No reply.

  Sonpear.

  SONPEAR!

  Kali’s eyes squeezed shut and her brow furrowed in concentration. She was oblivious to the wind that buffeted her as the ship continued its long descent, oblivious to everything but the image of a man on whom she would never have dreamt the lives of so many would depend.

  SONPEAR, YOU BASTARD, HEAR ME!

  Miss Hooper? There is really no need to shout. Or, I might add, to get personal.

  Kali’s eyes snapped back open and, for a second, she felt the link that had just been established slip away. But she fought against it until she could once again feel the sorcerer in her grasp.

  Miss Hooper, it is pleasing to hear from you. Tell me – was your mission successful?

  There’ll be no more k’nid from the Crucible. But the danger isn’t over yet.

  Indeed? And I gather that this communication is occurring because you once more need my help?

  Not only yours, Sonpear. The League.

  The League? Miss Hooper, I thought you already understood that the League has sealed its doors. That they are offering their help to no one.

  And doing so because they know nothing works. Tell me, Sonpear – how are things in Andon?

  The k�
�nid are ubiquitous. There is little more that can be done to prevent the city falling to them completely. Thankfully, we have managed to evacuate many of our people to the sewer network. Not the most salubrious place of refuge, as I can testify, but one that has become a necessity.

  Keep them there, Sonpear. But I need you to bring a message to the League, however you can.

  And that message is?

  That I have the means to eradicate the k’nid. But I need you, and them, to do something for me in return.

  Which is?

  Open another portal to Domdruggle’s Expanse.

  The Expanse? But surely I alone could attempt –

  I doubt it, Sonpear. This one needs to be a little bigger.

  Bigger?

  And in the sky.

  Sky?

  It’s a long story. Trust me.

  Sonpear went silent, and whether it was the telepathic link or not, Kali could almost feel him cogitating.

  Very well, Miss Hooper, I shall do as you ask. How long do we have to prepare the portal?

  Ohhh… about ten minutes.

  Hmph. I see.

  Not yet, you don’t. But you will. Later, Sonpear.

  The sorcerer’s voice sounded vaguely puzzled. Very well, Miss Hooper. Later, as you say.

  Kali broke the link and returned her attention to the physical rather than the mental, staring ahead of the ship to determine its current location. Its trajectory had not wavered while she had been otherwise occupied and, while it was inevitably now slightly lower in the sky, it was also closer to Andon, whose tallest structure – the Three Towers – had now become visible. She guessed that she would know if Sonpear had been successful in his task if she saw the structure unfurl from its defensive position. For now there was nothing that she could do.

  She gazed down at the passing landscape once more. Soon she would pass over the desolation surrounding Andon that was known as the Killing Ground. But, before she reached that, she was already encountering a number of smaller settlements that had established themselves between the Anclas Territories and the city. They were mining towns, mainly, what their inhabitants liked to think of as frontier towns, and they provided Kali with her first chance to see the effects of the k’nid on populated areas. Having slaughtered, absorbed or driven into hiding everyone in the area, the k’nid were now the only living presence – and they were everywhere. It was as if someone had lain a grey blanket over the countryside. She realised that if the k’nid were not stopped, then the peninsula would be lost forever.

  Kali looked to the horizon, filling now with the diverse shapes that made up the skyline of Andon, from besieged battlements to ramshackle merchants’ houses, from the warehouses at the Skeleton Quay to Archimandrate Thomas Marek’s solitary, Final Faith church; each and every structure quiet and abandoned and obscured beneath a layer of feasting k’nid. The only structure that seemed – perhaps through some magical means – to have escaped absorption was the Three Towers, but even so the headquarters of the League looked battered after enduring days of what must have been continuous assault. It did not, though, matter a jot what the Three Towers looked like, so long as its offences were still functional.

  Dammit, Sonpear. This is cutting things fine.

  But at that very moment the towers began to unfurl.

  Standing at the prow of the ship, Kali watched as the three separate spires of the headquarters of the League of Prestidigitation and Prestige began to return to their normal state, shedding those k’nid that determinedly clung to the sides. It was an awesome sight but, as she watched, Kali was uncomfortably aware that she was the only spectator. The city below was deserted. But the restoration of the Three Towers to their normal state was a sight that instilled confidence, and not a little pride, in her. And her confidence was further bolstered when she began to make out a considerable number of figures exiting the spires and lining the bridges that were beginning to snap back into place.

  Sonpear had done it. He had managed to persuade the mages to come out of their hidey-hole and join the final battle.

  Still, what she was asking them to do was, as Sonpear himself had admitted, going to be far from easy. She wasn’t exactly convinced that it was even possible – there was certainly no sign of any portal that she could see. Kali reckoned that she had approximately two or three minutes before the ship intercepted the Three Towers and she was knocked out of the sky. They all had only one chance at this, and if they failed the rune-covered crystal she carried with her would be lost, possibly for ever.

  Suddenly, however, something began to happen. The mages lining the bridges turned as one to face the approaching ship and though she could not hear them, the gesticulations they made with their arms made Kali realise that they had begun to chant. Led by Poul Sonpear – and Kali was convinced she spotted Lucius Kane in there too – every man and woman present was mouthing the same invocation over and over again, the volume growing as she neared them. And as the volume grew, so did something else.

  Kali’s previous experience of a magical portal had been pressured and fleeting to say the least, but there was no mistaking what was forming before her and the ship now. Smack in the middle of the triangle formed by the three towers, above the bridges, the sky was opening. The portal began to spread across the sky like a bleeding wound, as if the heavens themselves had been knifed, and through it Kali could see the shadowy netherworld that was Domdruggle’s Expanse. The perfect hiding place, she thought, where the ship could remain in limbo until, if ever, it was needed. And the ship was heading straight for it. Which, of course, meant that it was time to go.

  Kali had had her escape route mapped out from the moment Andon had appeared on the horizon, a sequence of buildings she intended to use as stepping stones to get her safely down to ground level, starting with the steeple of the Final Faith church. She was sure the Archimandrite in charge of the place wouldn’t mind the sacrilege, after all it was his lot that had started this mess in the first place. Of course, she would have to contend with the k’nid on her way down, but she still had her crackstaff and that should keep her safe enough until she could reach the Three Towers and hand over the crystal whereupon – hopefully – that particular problem would become academic. All she had to do was time her drop right so that she didn’t break her legs.

  She was beginning to unfurl a rope from her equipment belt, intending to tie it off and lower herself part of the way, when the ship shook violently and unexpectedly beneath her. She glanced worriedly ahead, saw that the ship was veering off course slightly. And if it continued the way it was going, it would veer away from the portal and into one of the towers themselves.

  Dammit! Kali thought, dropping the rope and returning to the controls.

  She had little, if any, idea of their internal workings and so did the only thing she could – thump them. Hard. She thumped them again but there was no response. And then, for the sake of variety, she kicked them. There was a slight response then and the course of the ship corrected slightly. But only for a second. Clearly the ship had leaked too much charge to continue without some persuasion and the implications of that couldn’t have been worse.

  She couldn’t abandon the ship. She had to ride with it into the portal. And this time she doubted she would be coming back.

  Kali looked up. The portal was directly in front of her now, fully formed, filling her world. The junction between realities seemed to slow the world around it, so that the ship edged rather than raced forward, but Kali wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not, because it gave her more time to see what was waiting for her inside. Looming large, directly on the other side of the portal – filling it – was Domdruggle’s face. That angry, wizened, no longer human face. And it was roaring at her.

  “Hooper!” it shouted.

  Or did it? The voice seemed to come from behind and below her, faint on the wind, and somehow not possessing the rumbling, vocal gravitas one might expect from an ages old, spectral wizard.

&
nbsp; “Hooper!”

  No, she thought. It couldn’t be.

  Kali raced to the rear of the deck and looked down. Oh Gods, no, it really, really couldn’t be...

  But it was.

  There was a naked man on a horse following the ship.

  Correction. There was a naked man on Horse following the ship.

  Riding him across the rooftops.

  Kali stared, and despite her predicament couldn’t help but smile. The fact was, Slowhand wasn’t so much riding Horse as Horse was allowing him to stay mounted as he galloped in pursuit, the great beast taking the gaps between buildings with powerful leaps, flinging the archer about in the saddle. Quite how he had gotten here so quickly she could only guess at, but presumably filled with indignant anger at being unceremoniously – and literally – dumped, Slowhand had survived the Rainbow River and hot-footed it to the Flagons and coaxed Horse from his sickbed with warnings about how she was in mortal danger. The bamfcat’s unusual abilities took care of the rest. Kali’s heart lifted to see how well the beast had recovered under Merrit Moon’s tender ministrations, and having him nearby made her feel less alone against what she faced. The archer, too, she supposed begrudgingly.

  “Hooper, jump!” Slowhand shouted, his voice faint across the distance between them.

  “I can’t!” she shouted back, hoping that he not only heard but realised there was a reason for her refusal beyond the dizzying height. Fortunately, the ship juddered once more to illustrate her point.

  A second passed, Slowhand sizing the situation up. As Kali corrected the ship’s course once more, she heard: “Hooper, just time it!”

  Time what? Kali thought.

  Because despite their mutual effort, Slowhand and Horse remained too far away. But at that second the nose of the ship impacted with the portal, squelching as it entered, and the effect the portal had on seeming to slow time was magnified tenfold as it slowly began to suck the ship through the bridge between worlds. Two things became immediately apparent to Kali – one, that this would give Slowhand and Horse time to draw closer and, two, that the ship no longer needed to be steered. It was entering the portal now no matter what and that made the difference between heroism and suicide. The jump itself might be suicide but at least she could try.